Hughes: Rooney will soon sparkle

Mark Hughes expects Wayne Rooney to rediscover his goalscoring touch soon - but hopes it returns after Sunday's showdown at Craven Cottage. Manchester United will provide Hughes with one of the most challenging starts in his opening match at Craven Cottage as Fulham manager.Counting in Fulham's favour, however, is that United's star striker Wayne Rooney has now gone 13 games without scoring for club or country dating back to March 30.Hughes draws similarities between his own playing style and that of Rooney and believes it is only a matter of time before the England marksman regains the finishing touch."I was never prolific and would never score ones or twos every other game," said Hughes, who spent 13 years at Old Trafford over two spells."In fairness I was streaky myself and at times Wayne has been that type of striker."Sometimes my work as a player took me out of the areas where I was most effective and that was in and around the box."When you're trying to work hard for the team you can be out of the areas where you have maximum impact. That affects the number of goals you score."There's a bit of that in Wayne's play at the moment because he's such an enthusiastic guy and wants to be involved in every aspect of the team's play."That's taken him away from being in areas where's he's most dangerous."It's only a matter of time before he starts scoring, as long as it's not this weekend!"He's a quality player. Class is permanent, form is temporary."There's no doubt he'll return to scoring ways and once he does he'll find they'll flow quite freely."Hughes is determined to start life at Craven Cottage on a triumphant note, though he knows a United side fresh from Monday's 3-0 victory over Newcastle will be hard to topple."This is my first competitive home game so I've been looking forward to it," he said."The fact it's Manchester United makes it more difficult from a professional point of view and we know we're up against it."We have a good record against them at Craven Cottage and hopefully we'll build on it."It's a challenge because they have started very well, look fresh and have added younger players to the squad."But the old stagers are still having an impact and influence on the game. They have a good mix."Fulham sprung one of the upsets of last season when they thrashed United 3-0 with the last 15 minutes played against the backdrop of home fans chanting "we want four, we want four"."It was an important win because you have to have the knowledge that you can overcome the best," said Hughes."The players now know they have the ability to beat the top teams. We'll have to match that performance."

Source: Team_Talk